Hand-truck.



E. B. BDDYa. W. R. GLARK.

HAND TRUCK. l. APPLICATION FILED NOV. 2, 1908. 150076'77. Patented Nov.7. 1911.

UNITED sTATEs PATENT oEEIoE.

ELBERT B. EDDY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, AND WALTER R. CLARK, OFMINNEAPOLIS,

MINNESOTA.

HAND-TRUCK.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 7, 1911.

` To-aZZ whom t may concern.'

neapolis, in the countyfof Hennepin and State of Minnesota, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Hand- Trucks, of whichthe following is a speciiication.

` The invention relates to manually-.propelled trucks, such as aregenerally used at railroad stations and express oices for transportingbaggage and packages, between the cars and the station or from one partof the station to another. These trucks when not infuse, are usuallyleft on the platform of the station and it frequently occurs thatpersons hurrying to ory from a train, or to the ticket oiiice, stumbleover the handle when it is left in lowered position and frequently therailroad or express companies are obliged to pay large claims fordamages arising from accidents of this sort. To some extent theseaccidents may be avoided by providing latches or locks for holding thehandle in elevated position. In practice, however, it frequently' occursthat baggagemen or expressmen neglect or overlook the necessity oflifting the handle and locking it in raised position particularly whenhasteis necessary in their work.

A further desideratum in baggage or express trucks is to apply brakes tothe wheels of the truck so that it will not be free to be pushed aroundthe platform or off the platform, and onto the tracks where it mightcause an accident. It has heretofore been proposed to providetongue-operated brakes to hold the truck wherever it may be left but inpractice it frequently occurs that the expressmen or baggagemenin thehurried performance o-f their duties, neglect to lift and lock thehandle into position to cause the'brakes to be applied to the wheel ofthe truck.

The invention designs to provide an improved truck in which the handlewill be automatically lifted whenever it is released by the operator, sothat it will be impossible for any person to stumble over the handlewhen the truck is not in use, because automatic lifting-means will causethe handle to be held in lifted position at all times, except when theuser is holding the handle in lowered position. Therefore it will beimpossible for the handle to be in lowered position, except when it isheld there by the user and if the lattershould hurriedly leave the truckthe handle will be automatically lifted into position to avoid apossible accident.

The invention further designs to provide a truck with an automaticbrake-operating mechanism which will cause the brakes to beautomatically applied when the handle is released by the operator, thusrelieving the operator of the necessity of lifting and locking thehandle to apply the brakes. Therefore when the brakes are operated byan' automatically lifted handle, the-latter will at all times, exceptwhen held by the user, be in lifted position'and the brakes will beautomatically applied whenever the user releases the handle and therewill be no accidents occurring, either from the handle being left inlowered position or from the truck rolling around or being-pushed offthe platform.

With these objects in View, the invention consists in the several novelfeatures of construction hereinafter set forthand more particularlydefined by claims at the conclusion hereof.

In the drawings: Figure 1 is a' side elevation of a truck embodying theinvention, the handle being shown. in lifted position to which it isautomatically shifted and in which it will be held atall times exceptwhen in use. Fig. 2 is a similar view, parts being shown in section, thehandle being shown in lowered position. Fig. 3 is an inverted plan, theparts being shown in position illustrated in Fig. 1. l

The truck comprises a body 10, rearwheels 11, front-wheels12, which aremountwhich permits the front wheels and the axle to be swung laterallyand all of these parts may be of usual or any suitable construction, aswell understood in the art. The handle 15 is connected to the front-axle13 by pivots 16, so that the handle may be lowered for use and so thatthe front axle and wheels may be swung laterally to guide the truck.

The handle is normally held in raised position shown in Fig. 1 by aweight 17 which is adjustably connected to a lever 18 by a screw 18. Thelever is pivoted as at 19 in a bracket 2() secured to the bolster 13*1and axle 13 and has its front end pivotally and adjustably connected tothe rear end of a link 21. The front end of said link is connected to anarm 22 which is pivoted, as at 23, in the front end of the bracket 20and is rigidly connected to another but shorter arm 24, said arms 22 and24 and intermediate part pivoted at 23 forming a double crank having along and a short arm, whereby movement of said long arm 22 will beimparted to short arm 24 with increased leverage. A rod 25 is connectedto the end of arm 24, said arms 22 and 24: and intermediate secured tothe handle as at 26. The weight 17 is suiicient to overbalance thepivoted handle 15 and the connection between the lever and the handle issuch that it will cause the latter to be held in raised position at alltimes, except when it is manually held in lowered position for use. Theweight and its connection with the handle thus serve as means forautomatically lifting the handle when it is released and for retainingit nor# mally elevated above the position in which it is used fordrawing the truck. When the handle is in lowered positionl and releasedby the operator, weight 17 will cause the rear portion of lever 18 to belowered to swing said lever about its pivot 19 and to operate the link21 forwardly to rock arins 22 and 24, which will operate rod 26 to raisethe handle 15. Resultantly, whenever the operator leaves the truck thehandle will be immediately and automatically raised so that accidentsresulting from leaving the handle in lowered position where persons arelikely to stumble over it will be avoided. The weighted lever andlink-connection for the tongue are arranged in close proximity to theaxle to leave as much clearance as possible below the axle and so thatwhen the truck is in use' the connections will not encounterobstructions on the platform. Furthermore, the weight-lever 18 isarranged to rise and fall beneath the body of the truck and not in tooclose proximity to the ground or platform.

A brake-shoe 30 is provided for each of the front wheels 12 beingsecured to a rod 31 which is pivotally held in a bracket 32 which issecured to the front bolster 13a by a bracket 33 and to bracket 20 by abolt 31 which also secures the brackets 20, and 33 together. Thebrake-shoes are secured to arms 35 at the outer ends of rod 31 so thatby oscillation of said rod the brakes will be shifted into or out ofengagement with the Wheelrims. The brakes are caused to be automaticallyapplied when the operator releases the handle by a connection betweenrod 31 and link 21 of the connection for automatically liftingthehandle. The connes tion for automatically operating the brakes comprisesan arm 36 rigidly secured or connected to rod 31 and a link 37 pivotedto the lower end of said rod as at 38 and to. the link 21 as at 39. Theend of link 37 is adapted to be connected to the link 21 by means ofeither of a series of holes 40 so that the brake-operating connectionmay be adjusted or set to timely apply the brake-'shoes to the wheels.Result-antly, whenever the handle is operated by the automatic lifting-ymeans, link 37 will also operate arm 36 to rock brake-shaft 31 and forcethe brakeshoes 30 into engagement with the rims of wheels 12, thelweight 17 being suiiicientto cause the brake-shoes to be held inengagement with the wheel-rims. The invention thus provides an improvedtruck embodying-- occur either from permitting the handle to remain inlowered position where some person might stumble over it or the truckmight roll or be moved around the platform, because at all times, exceptwhen the handle is held by the operator, the handle will be in raisedposition and the brakes will be set.

The invention -is not to be understood as restricted to the detailsdescribed since these may be modified within the scope of the appendedclaims without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

Having thus described the invention, what we` claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent, is:

1. The combination in a truck comprising carrying-wheels and a pivotedhandle, of means for automatically swinging said handle upwardly aboveits working range of movement, comprising a counterweighted lever, alink connected to said lever, and connections between said link andhandle for increasing the leverage on said handle.

2. The combination in a truck comprising carrying-wheels and a pivotedhandle, of means for automatically swinging said handle upwardly aboveits working range of movement, comprising a counterweighted lever, alink connected to said lever, a brake

